Although Japan’s beer industry dates back nearly 145 years, to date there has been no English-language source documenting its origins, growth, and evolution. Spanning the earliest attempts to brew beer to the recent popularity of local craft brews, Brewed in Japan explores beer’s steady rise to become today’s “beverage of the masses.” Alexander sheds light on the advent of Western-style taverns and beer gardens, the control of beer production by Japan’s Ministry of Finance during the Second World War, the rapid rise in women’s beer consumption postwar, and the continued dominance of long-surviving firms such as Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo. Featuring an array of Japanese sources, this book further illustrates how post-war marketing campaigns and shifting consumer preferences made beer Japan’s leading alcoholic beverage by the 1960s.

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Jeffrey W. Alexander is an associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside, and author of Japan’s Motorcycle Wars: An Industry History (UBC Press, 2008).